also, the computer can't even connect via wired ethernet cable! so most of the simple install/upgrade instructions found on the web don't work either. I really don't want to spent an hour copying files from USB over to the laptop, entering commands, etc. to get this working.

Hi Synapsis, how's it going ? Welcome to the Peppermint Forum. The curse of Broadcom strikes again - Grrrr! It would be great if you could let us have some more info about your machine. Open a terminal window with the following keystrokes:

Ctrl+Alt+t

Enter, (Copy & Paste) the following command into the terminal and hit enter:

Post the output back to the forum. From what you're saying, you'll have to first copy it to a file and then to a USB stick. To open a new file right click on the Desktop and select:

Create New Document > Empty Document

Copy & Paste the terminal output into the newly created file. Save As... (Shift+Ctrl+s) and quit the text editor. Copy/Move the file to your USB stick. This will give us a detailed view of your machine's specifications. Someone will get back to you as fast as they can .

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Backup! Backup! Backup! If you're missing any of these - you ain't Backed Up!For my system info please L/click HERE.

also, the computer can't even connect via wired ethernet cable! so most of the simple install/upgrade instructions found on the web don't work either. I really don't want to spent an hour copying files from USB over to the laptop, entering commands, etc. to get this working.

is there a less painful way of doing this?

Sorry, but if you haven't got a wired connection either there is no "easy" way to do this.

I can provide instructions, but you're gonna need to download files on another PC and copy them across.

Unless of course you can temporarily borrow a working USB wireless adapter .. so we can use that connection to install the drivers for your broadcom ?

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WARNING: You are logged into reality as 'root' .. logging in as 'insane' is the only safe option.

Hi PCNetSpec, thanks for your help. Well, if it can't be done the easy way, I suppose there's only one option, time to embrace the suck :/ Let's see if we can get this wifi going because I really like peppermint so far, it is light! (160MB), snappy and beautiful to look at.

On a whim, I decided to reboot the laptop to see if that would make a difference and what do you think happened? It now works! It recognized wifi and was able to login!

WOOHOO!

tHANK YOU so MUCH!!

This is very cool. I just wanted to let you know that thanks to one generous person who donated the hardware, and thanks to little old me who put in a few hours and a tiny amount of n00b knowledge to pick peppermint as the distro to breathe new life into this old laptop and thanks to your expert knowledge... a very deserving young person who is about to start school will now have a really awesome laptop! And hopefully will begin a long and rewarding linux journey as well.

Hi,iam a new user in peppermint 9. My laptop using broadcom too, and the problems is same. i've just tried everything solution in this forum for my wifi problems, including download some file and place it in b43offline. and sadly there's no change happened with my wifi. If i use usb wifi adapter wireless can work fine, but if i unplugged it im not able to see or connect to a wifi